“They fail to mention that Mr Montsi was appointed by the Minister of Agriculture as the executive director and therefore the minister has powers to fire him,” said ‘Mokose.

Quoting from sections of the law establishing the LNDB, the minister said he could justify his every step to dismiss Montsi.

“The law explicitly says the executive secretary is appointed by the minister of agriculture and I don’t understand why they say the minister can’t fire him,” he said.

“The chairman of the board whom they say appointed him to be executive secretary and head of the LNDB is the principal secretary of the ministry of agriculture and he carries out instructions of the minister.”

’Mokose said Mafisa’s letter failed to mention that the tenure of office for all members of the board was three years yet Montsi “has been there for over 20 years”.

The LNDB was established by the agriculture ministry in 1991 to prescribe standards of production, storage, packaging, processing and distribution of dairy products.

The LNDB is vested with powers to issue permits to companies that produce, process and distribute dairy products.